Azerbaijan: ruling party and observers state violations of "day of silence"

In Azerbaijan, in the context of the "day of silence", on the eve of the presidential election, this morning they removed posters of candidates away from the promotional stands, specially installed in the streets. Independent experts point to the publication by state-owned newspapers of the report from the sitting of the Cabinet of Ministers chaired by President Ilham Aliev; while the ruling party accuses the oppositional newspapers of violating the rules of the campaign.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed by Khafiz Gasanov, the head of the Centre "Law and Development", that so far no messages about any serious violations of campaigning rules have arrived. However, he drew attention to the publication by four nationwide newspapers of a detailed report about the sitting on October 6 of the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers, dedicated to the outcomes of the socio-economic development of the country for the first nine months of 2013 and chaired by the incumbent President Ilham Aliev.

It was also reported that the ruling "Yeni Azerbaijan" Party (YAP) has complained to the Central Election Committee (CEC) about the oppositional newspapers "Azadlyg" and "Yeni Musavat", accusing them of violating the rules of the election campaign. These newspapers published campaign materials in support of the presidential candidate from the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) Jamil Gasanli and another candidate – Igbal Agazade.

Rashid Gadjily, the Director of the Media Rights Institute (MRI) points to the "controversial nature of this issue," since the oppositional newspapers had been published before the "day of silence".

Let us note here that a total of 5,141,000 citizens of Azerbaijan have the right to vote. The election will be monitored by observers from the European Parliament, OSCE, CIS and PACE.